And just why should I move out of the county and screw up somebody elses hunting. This article indicates most of the state except private ground and around the cities has the same problem. Used to measure 100, now measure 40.
Your area is no better than mine. I am headed to Ohio as soon as our season is over. When are you going to admit the PGC made a mistake. I am going to ask the same question on your site and wait for the spin.
Measuring program good for the commission
George Block: Outdoors This article has been read 273 times.
As I recently watched the Wildlife Conservation Officers measure antlers and bear skulls while chatting with the visitors, it brought a thought, "This is what makes the Deer Measuring Program so important."
It is not necessarily who shot the biggest buck or bear, but it is the interplay between officer and rack or skull owner that is of importance. The talk and kibitzing is informal and on an equal level unlike some of the meetings which take place in the field, where the hunter is nervous and the officer bound by duty to check everything.
Perhaps, to say it clearly, it is a chance for the hunter to find that Rod Burns, Mel Shake and Tom Fazi, are human beings just like they are.
Last Saturday, John Dino and I drove to the Southwest Office of the Pennsylvania Game Commission near Bollivar, to watch the Deer Measuring Program take place.
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Who should be parked right beside me but Jerry Sinkunis of Washington. Sinkunis, if one remembers, is the archer who downed the 36-point buck last season in Allegheny County.
It's always good to see friends when away from home, and Sinkunis told us how he had bagged a large turkey this spring with the same bow he used on the big buck.
n After commenting about the Game Commissions now and then, I wasn't sure how I would be greeted, but must admit I was treated very well - in fact, better than I probably deserved.
I had the good fortune to bump into an old friend and ex-director of the commission, Don Madl, and we talked of the old days when he served here in Washington County.
He asked about Denny Frederick and said that he thought Frederick was one of the best commissioners who has ever served a term in the commission.
I wasn't there long when I, too, held my tape and was helping score deer. I was really surprised at the low numbers of heads brought in, for this was the first measuring session to be held in some time.
We scored just over 40, and I remember in past sessions doing well over 100. Maybe it was because of the requirement of pre-registration. I don't know. Or perhaps, like I have found, scoring a big deer has fallen off, in both numbers and size.
Actually, the Big Game Records Program goes back over 40 years. The first scoring session was held in 1965 and resulted in 1,300 deer racks being measured.
The 1965 session was followed by sessions in 1967, '69, '71 and '73. It was the 1973 session that saw the scoring of the top non-typical deer ever taken in the state.
It was a big Erie County buck scoring 238-6/8, downed in 1942 by Edward Dodge of Knox.
It was during the 1979 program that the still standing typical record buck was scored, a Bradford County buck scoring 189-0, downed in 1943 by Fritz Janowsky of Wellsburg, New York.
I have always found it interesting that these two top scoring bucks were taken within a year of each other in the early '40s.
The state's measuring sessions have been going on since that 1965 start, usually on a four-year basis, but occasionally there is a hiccup where there is more time between sessions. Looking over the record book, I find a couple of interesting sidebars.
For one, there is a buck taken by Arthur Young in McKean County that seems to have some questions related to it. In the state book it is listed as being taken in 1930. In the book put out by the BYC Club the same buck is listed as being downed in 1830.
That is before the Civil War and before we fought the Mexicans at the Alamo.
If the 1830 date is correct it is the oldest date listed in the Boone and Crockett Book. Whenever it was taken at a score of 175-4/8, it is one great mountain buck.
Occasionally, the two books the Boone & Crockett and the state don't jibe exactly.
For instance, the Boone & Crocket book lists Ivan Parry's, Greene County buck as Pennsylvania's best typical entry. Yet the state book lists Janowsky's on top. This is because the letter has never been entered in the B & C.
Another interesting question relates to the Clarion County buck taken by Mead Kifer that scores 173-3/8. It is listed high in the Pennsylvania book as it should be. But in the Boone & Crocket book, right below the listing of this buck is another Clarion County buck which scored 170-2/8. That deer was shot by a Meade R. Kifer.
Is it a coincidence, or is it the same person with a misspelled name? Or is it a father and son duo?
Whatever, it is an interesting mystery of the record book.